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Airbnb listings in U.S.
Introduction
Airbnb is one of the most visited rental applications. According to relevant statistics, it’s estimated that Airbnb has more than 20% market share in the rental industry until 2023 and the average revenue of hosts annually is $13,800Reference. For landlords, understanding pricing patterns and the factors that influence prices is an effective way to increase revenue. In our project, we aim to identify potential pricing and revenue-related characteristics from listing information throughout the United States. At the same time, it is very intriguing to see what amenities are most widely offered by tenants because travelers’ requirements for living conditions are gradually increasing despite being in a short-stay residence. To some extent, the most widely provided amenities denote the minimum standard of amenities in the listing.
About Data
The data we use comes from the website named Inside Airbnb data source where archives scraped data on Airbnb. All the data contains mainly two aspects. One of them is the detailed descriptions of existing listings in 33 cities in the United States, including features like latitude, longitude, room types, and rating of different aspects. The other dataset records the price and availability during the next 30, 60, 90, and 365 days. After joining the two datasets together, the future expected revenue for each listing can be calculated by using the unit price one night and the number of available nights.
General Info
The distribution of Airbnb in the states and prices
California has the most listings overall from Airbnb dataset, but they are spread across eight cities which could have significantly different characteristics and patterns in terms of ratings, prices, and property types. New York City and Hawaii, on the other hand, are both famous tourist destinations, and they are expected to have high listing volumes and higher median prices.
While Hawaii does have the highest median price among all states, and Rhode Island has the second-highest median price, we cannot overlook the importance of ratings in generating revenue.
Ratings provide a comprehensive indicator of a traveler’s overall experience with an Airbnb listing, taking into account many different aspects such as location, amenities, cleanliness, and host communication. As such, ratings are assumed to be highly correlated with revenue.
Analytics
Nationwide
Ratings by states
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There are 33 lines in the chart, each representing the average score of all listings in a city in terms of six different scoring perspectives. Among all the 33 cities, the worst overall score comes from New Jersy.
Overall, it seems that the rating of service attitude is high, such as whether the check-in is convenient and fast, and whether the communication is friendly and smooth. However, the ratings regarding the hardware conditions of the house itself are relatively low, such as cleanliness and location.
It seems that people are more likely to give high ratings for good communication with the host, so improving service attitude is the quickest way to improve ratings. Also, for a listing, since location is a factor that cannot be changed, improving cleanliness is another way to improve the overall rating. Because there is more room for improvement in the cleanliness rating, it will be the most effective way once the cleanliness is improved.
Price of different room types
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As is commonly perceived, hotel rooms have the highest average price, followed by entire home/apartment rentals, private rooms, and shared rooms. The average price of an entire home/apartment is twice as much as a private room. Focusing on nationwide data, the average price of a hotel for one night is $392, and the shared room that is the cheapest is $88.
From the host’s perspective, unless the property has an absolute advantage in one aspect, such as a very good location and complete housing infrastructure, it is much safer to price the property at an average price to avoid lowering the price/performance ratio of the property, resulting in a lower probability of renting.
Look at the occupancy rate
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Hotel room is the room type with highest occupancy rate no matter it is long-term or short-term. For entire home/apartment, the number of maximum nights of listings with the highest occupancy rate is concentrated in the range above 800, meaning that the rental contract of entire homes and apartments tends to be more stable compared to other room types.
From Nationwide to the City
We have chosen the average rating as a key factor to narrow down our analysis in order to identify potential strategies and provide valuable insights to households to increase revenue. Although Montana has the highest average rating, the number of listings is too small. We will focus on analyzing North Carolina which has the second high average rating with a relatively large number of listings.
By narrowing down the focus from nationwide to North Carolina and then to Asheville, we can better understand the specific trends within the state and city. This will allow for a more detailed analysis, which can be valuable for hosts and local businesses. Finally, we can make informed decisions about the local Airbnb market to help them out.
The Airbnb listings in Asheville, NC
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The map here visualizes all the listings in Asheville, North Carolina. The graph is composed of an actual graph of Asheville and a heatmap of listing locations. A greener and brighter area suggests there’re more Airbnb lisitngs in this area. From the graph, we can see Ahevielle is a great representation of US cities, with most of the listings scatter around the downtown area and some around the airport.
Total revenue based on different room types
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The plots for Airbnb reservations Revenue in North Carolina shows some interesting patterns. Firstly, revenue tends to increase significantly from Friday to Sunday and is at its lowest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Additionally, August and September have relatively low reservation rates compared to other months.
Most of the Airbnb listings in North Carolina are private rooms and entire home/apartment types, with the majority of revenue coming from entire home/apartment rentals. It’s not surprising that Hotel Room and Shared room types have lower revenues. The booking patterns for private rooms and entire home/apts differ based on the month. For private rooms, revenue tends to decrease from April to May, increase from mid-June, and further increase from mid-September. On the other hand, for entire home/apts, bookings decrease until mid-September.
To increase revenue, households can adjust their pricing strategies by increasing prices during weekends, and decreasing them during weekdays to attract more travelers and increase occupancy rates, matching the booking patterns. Private room households may consider raising their prices after mid-July when booking rates tend to increase. For entire home/apt listings, households may consider converting them to rent private rooms inside the apartment/house instead of renting the entire space, as demand for entire home/apt bookings decreases until mid-September.
Revenue for different room types in Asheville, NC
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The scatterplot charts with number of reviews and review scores as x-axes and revenue as y-axis, with price as point size, offer some valuable insights for North Carolina Airbnb hosts. One of the key findings is that some listings with higher prices and fewer reviews generate more revenue, likely due to having more beds available. However, for most listings with 0-100 reviews, increasing the number of reviews does not necessarily lead to higher revenue, especially for those with fewer beds.
The scatterplot chart also reveals that most listings in North Carolina have review scores higher than 4.5, and higher review scores tend to generate higher revenue. This indicates that hosts should prioritize providing top-notch services to guests to receive positive reviews, which can ultimately boost their revenue. By maintaining high-quality services and keeping guests happy, hosts can improve their review scores and increase their revenue in the long run.